There are a number of medical procedures that are performed on a patient's eye (termed operative eye) such as cataract removal, lens implants, vision corrective surgery, injury repair, and the like, wherein the aforementioned medical procedures typically require bright high-intensity operative lighting that is focused upon the operative eye for the eye surgeon and others to perform their task. Also, it can be important that the operative eye assume a selected particular focus line of sight axis position and be stable in that particular focus line of sight axis position, in addition, during the medical procedure the eye surgeon and others may require that the operative eye be moved to a second selected particular focus line of sight axis position, and so on. The patient may be under local anesthesia during the medical procedure on their operative eye. Depending upon the medical procedure performed on the operative eye and the level of anesthesia, the bright high-intensity operative lighting that is focused upon the operative eye, that typically has diminished visual acuity from the medical procedure, can be disorientating and uncomfortable for the awake patient in addition to possibly causing the operative eye to change its focus line of sight position unexpectedly and/or cause the operative eye to move uncontrollably, making the eye surgery more difficult and lengthy potentially causing additional medical complications.
Although, the aforementioned problem is recognized, the prior art has not directly addressed this issue, however, there are some prior art devices that occlude an eye or impart various visual images to the eye for the purpose of field of vision testing, eye therapy, brain activity testing, sports timing or pacing, and the like. Principally, the prior art most focuses upon field of vision testing, an example would be in U.S. Pat. No. 5,805,270 to Marshall that discloses a device and method for field of vision testing that includes a patch and an opaque eye cover housing with an array of fixed position LED's with selected and sequential illumination. Marshall observes the non occluded eye movement in responding to the occluded eye reacting to various illumination points. Another example is in a more conventional field of vision testing device in U.S. Pat. No. 5,461,436 to Campbell that discloses an open chamber that both of the patient's eyes see and thus both of the patient's eyes see the same background color allowing color field of vision testing thus minimizing retinal rivalry interference, which is where the eye that is not the subject of the field of vision testing interferes with the vision of the eye being tested, such as when the eye not being tested is completely occluded and interferes with the vision of the eye being tested, being particularly troublesome when the patient has a dominant eye. Additionally, in Campbell if the non tested eye was exposed to a white light background, which was found to be too bright for some patient's, was also found to affect field of vision test results. Campbell attempts to overcome these problems by providing a non white background light for the non tested eye, which is claimed to be more effective in detecting glaucoma with the preferred colors being a yellow background for both eyes and a blue spot fixation light for the tested eye that is movable for field of vision testing.
In the brain activity area, in U.S. patent application publication number U.S. 2002/0198577 A1 to jaillet disclosed is a monocular apparatus for selectively stimulating brain activity of a patient by the use of light and/or sound for diagnosis of the extent of brain injury, or other brain disorder. Jaillet in one embodiment is an eye glasses type of structure having a plurality of fixed position lights that in conjunction with or without sound or having sound alone, all or part of which are selectively activated to stimulate the brain in either one or both eyes with the light stimulation varying in color intensity and frequency. On the therapy side for defects in eye vision in U.S. Pat. No. 5,264,877 to Hussey, disclosed is a pair of eyeglasses that have a selectable opaque to transparent view and vice versa single lens that are adjacent to a thin film, being a liquid crystal type display sandwiched between two metalized mylar films that are electrically controlled that in effect align the liquid crystals changing the thin film from transparent to opaque and vice versa at a high frequency. Hussey is for the treatment of cross eye and lazy eye, wherein the objective of the treatment is to stimulate the subservient eye. Also, in the eye therapy area in U.S. patent application publication number U.S. 2003/0056281 A1 to Hasegawa, disclosed is an eye mask that has the capability of magnetic bodies, heating, cooling, vibrators, eyeball shapers, aromatics, sound, and elimination of sound for the treatment of eye fatigue, disease, pseudo myopia, moderate farsightedness, and moderate astigmatism. Hasegawa also controls the fixed position illumination bodies for frequency and intensity.
In the sports timing or pacing area in U.S. Pat. No. 5,402,188 to Wayne disclosed is an athletic pacing goggle that has a selectable periodic fixed position visual signal to a swimmer for the purpose of allowing the swimmer to pace their strokes. Wayne includes a fixed position LED in the swimming goggles that is in a corner of one eye, being in the peripheral field vision of that eye, the LED flashes at a selectable frequency for the swimmer to pace their strokes wherein the goggles of necessity remain transparent for both eyes. A similar prior art example is in U.S. Pat. No. 4,776,045 to Mysliwiec et al. that discloses an athletic pacing goggle that is similar to Wayne except that in addition to a periodic fixed position visual signal, a timing device is also in the swimmers peripheral field of vision, utilizing a special lens to better make the timing device readable, which is again for use in pacing swimming strokes and for measuring elapsed time for swimming laps.
The aforementioned prior art does not disclose a device that directly addresses the identified problems of the operative eye assuming a selected particular focus line of sight axis position and be stable in that particular focus line of sight axis position, or having a device to move the operative eye to a second selected focus line of sight axis position or positions and also helping to maintain the selected focus line of sight axis position in a stable manner for the purpose of more effective and efficient eye surgery for the patient.